SIBERIA IN CHAOS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 248, 19 October 1922, Page 5

SIBERIA IN CHAOS.

RETURN TO BARBARISM. WHAT OF THE FUTURE? Siberia from the Urals to Vladivostok is one of the very rich parts of the world. Omsk in 1914 was one of the largest oflicos operated by the International Harvester Co., and is the centre of one of the richest agricultural districts in the world. •.

Now there is not a smile in two thousand miles of rich country. At Krasnoyarsk there is a wonderful river, the Yenessei i larger than the Mississippi and teeming with fish, but no fish are caught because there are no hooks. If fish were caught they would be requisitioned djthe ever watchful commissars. The railway is operated by force of habit only. The railway employees are still willing to work because it is their only possible chance for existence. The railway shops are manned by inexperienced boys who play at work. The experienced men steal pieces of iron or steel and go to some village where they can beat the material into a hoc or knife and thereby get a supply of bread.

FREE TRADE. The Soviet Government has declared free trade. This means that if you are fortunate enough to possess a frock coat of pre-war vintage or an enlarged portrait of your grandmother or a made-in-Germany statue of Venus, you can sit in the market place for several days trying to trade your possessions for enough bread to keep you alive for a limited time. What will come later is no matter, the main fact is to get something to eat now.

There is a little flour doled out by the Government, but only the Government employees get it and then only in small quantities. There are practically no horses or cattle left and no means to plant or cultivate crops if the energy and seed were available.

NOVEL PAY CHECKS. Tlie railway employees get paid in any kind of goods which the Government may happen to have on hand. For inI stance, a railway shop foreman for one i month's par received a carton of rubber I nursing bottle nipples. He laid off for la. week to 6it round the market place jto try and trade his pay for bread. I Another employee received" for his pay a few pound.-, of small l>ohs, for which he tried for several days to trade for bread. Private business is impossible. No one is allowed to import goods as the Government immediately requisitions anything needed. Last year attempts were made at farming, but t!u> Government requisitioned all the produce it could reach and gave nothing in exchange except paper rubles. Xo one is well fed, , except possibly the peasants who live I away from the. main transportation routes and hide and hoard their supplies. There are no schools, there is n» social life. There is absolutely no news about the outside world except as coloured and distorted by the red propaganda Press. I WHAT WILL THE HARVEST BE? Family life as a unit has almost ceased. If fifteenrear-old John goes away one morning and does not return at night, some one mar remark that he is probably hunting food; if he fails to return at all no further notice is taken. Train loads of children from the famine districts of tho Volga have been dumped in these Siberia towns with no organisation or provision for their welfare. They walk- along the railway in bands, sleep in the streets and dife by dozens Between Omsk and'Xovo Xikolaievsk, a distance of four thousand miles in a daylight ride on the railway, only five men were noticed working in the 'fields No one is fully clothed; good boots and shoes do not exist. A foreigner in ordinary clothes is surrounded by a curious crowd because he looks well" fed and is well clothed. There is no industry and no production. Each day forces these people farther back to absolute barbarism What is the end. and how will ,V affect oureehes?—"Sunset Magazine."